Windows Media Player 9 problem

[zoeythecat]

Hi All,

I am hoping I posted this to the correct for. I have an end user who has a Tablet PC with WindowsXP Pro. He recently started experiencing problems with his Windows Media Player version 9. When opening Windows Media Player the "Media Libary" does not display anthing and you cannot add anything here via the search. Interesting when I login as a new user the Windows Media 9 finishes installing itself. As a new user I can see items from the "Media Libary" but when I log back in as the user of the machine I still do not. Unfortunately you cannot uninstall this from Add/Remove programs because it is not there. Can anyone offer some answers to these questions?
(1) Any ideas on how to uninstall Windows Media Player 9 so I can reinstall cleanly?
(2) Any articles that would help me find a solution to this if option 1 is not possible?

Thanks in advance

 

[OzCDN]

Since it works from other logins, it sounds like this user's profile is corrupt. If you reboot the machine, log in as an administrator (not the problem account), go into c:\Documents and Settings and rename the folder with the same name as the bad account to something else (I usually add a .bad on to the end).

When they next log in they will get a new, clean profile. You can go into the bad profile and copy the Favorites and documents into this new profile but you'll have to set up things like mail from scratch. You could try the account migration tool but I always worry that it will migrate the corruption as well.

P.S. If this does not solve the problem then you can always rename the profile back with the same procedure.

 

[Turkbear]

Hi,
If a restore point was set before installing the WMP9, then go back to that point.
If not,
try reinstalling wmp9 over the existing one, it should correct itself.

 

[zoeythecat]

Thanks for your replies:

ozcdn
I agree it may have something to do with the users profile being corrupt. Because this is my manager I did not want to rename or purge the folder. Guess I am looking for a different type of solution (quick fix). But your idea would definitely work.

Turkbear

Same thing. Would not want to restore back to an earlier restore point as this also uninstalls hotfixes and other things that would have to be reinstalled. I'm sure your idea would work as well.

Thanks again

 

[gpalmer711]

Media Player 9 should appear in Add/Remove programs in control panel, however you need to click on the "Add/Remove Windows Compomnents" button on the left of that screen. Media Player should be near the bottom.

Greg Palmer
Free Software for Adminstrators

http://www.palmersoft.co.uk

 

[zoeythecat]

Yes...How did I miss that? I guess to reinstall this then All I need to do is uncheck that and then remove and then reinstall.

Thanks

 

[gpalmer711]

To reinstall I would recommend visiting the windows update site. This will download a fresh copy of the software to your machine and then reinstall for you.

Greg Palmer
Free Software for Adminstrators

http://www.palmersoft.co.uk

 

[zoeythecat]

I downloaded the executable and did a reinstall and this did not resolve the problem. The problem I had is I could not find how to uninstall the Windows Media Player from the system so I could reinstall cleanly. I think now that I can remove this program from the Add/Remove components I should hopefully be able to install this cleanly and then this should resolve the problem.

Thanks